I love dragonflies with patterned wings and one of the coolest ones in our area is the male Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa), which has a distinctive combination of one dark and one white blotch per wing. Eventually the immature male in the first photo will turn bluish in color, but for now he has the brown and yellow colors that he shares with the females. The females have only a single large blotch on each wing, so usually I can tell the genders apart.
When the male first emerges, however, the white blotches may be hard to see, so I have to look more closely at other aspects of the dragonfly’s body. I am pretty confident that the dragonfly in the second photo is a very young male Widow Skimmer.
It was really easy to track a male Widow Skimmer dragonfly in the air, because its colorful wings made it look almost like a butterfly. However, the dragonfly in the first photo was remarkably skittish and would perch only momentarily in between its patrols over the waters of the small pond that I visited on Monday. Eventually my patience paid off and I was able to get a shot, albeit from a relatively long distance away.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Lovely images, the detail in the wings of the second one is … well, incredible!
Thanks. Capturing details like that is often a question of getting the right angle so as much of the dragonfly will be in focus as possible. It is definitely a challenge, but a fun one.
A big part would be for the dragonfly to sit still for long enough too I expect! I’ve chased a few around but never had much luck.
I am fortunate to live in a place with quite a few different dragonfly species. Some of them catch prey while they are flying and rarely perch–they are the toughest ones to photograph. Some others, though, spend a lot of their time perched and even when they fly off, they will sometimes return to their favorite perches–they are a little easier. In any case, it helps to be patient and persistent. 🙂
Very nice Mike! Always enjoy seeing your dragonfly images!